Tag Archives: last

The Steelers only managed to sign one rookie to his first NFL contract yesterday and it was their final pick OG Kelvin Beachum out of SMU. Art Rooney II said after last season that Ben Roethlisberger’s protection was Priority No. 1 so the Steelers didn’t mess around in the draft and Beachum became the third offensive linemen they selected with their nine picks.
Beachum’s your typical seventh-round pick; he was a depth pick, and since the Steelers desperately needed healthy offensive linemen last year, he looks like the right choice. And if he can make the team, he’ll be a Steeler for the next four years now that he’s signed his contract.
The kid started 52 games for SMU – you know, the team that beat Pitt in the Compass Bowl – so it looks like he should have the durability to stay healthy, and since he played tackle in college and was drafted as a guard, his versatility was probably pretty attractive too.
He’ll have his work cut out for him though just to make the team out of training camp with all of the talent the Steelers have acquired for the line. Unless they decide to go with 10 linemen to start the year, which may not be a terrible idea considering what happened to the line last year, Beachum will probably be a practice squad lineman his first year.

The Steelers may or may not have had some interest in free agent RB Mike Tolbert, who inked on Monday with the Carolina Panthers.

The reason behind that interest may have been due to the fact it’s now seemingly more and more like the team may not have the services of RB Rashard Mendenhall in 2012.

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentions that “it’s possible Mendenhall may have had his last carry with the Steelers.”

The former first-round back tore his ACL in the regular season finale against Cleveland, and entering the final year of his contract and it’s certainly a possibility that the Steelers could look to move on without him in a year from now.

Bouchette states “sources told me that the Steelers will not count on Mendenhall returning to form until at least the 2013 season.”

It’s hard to gauge what the market for running backs will be like in 2013, but if the recent trends are any indication, it’s safe to assume that he’s not going to land a huge contract, and it very well may not be in Pittsburgh.

A month ago, Steelers G.M. Kevin Colbert provided a gloomy outlook for running back Rashard Mendenhall’s recovery from a January 1 ACL tear. Colbert said the Steelers wouldn’t count on Mendenhall to be ready for Week One, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review subsequently reported Mendenhall would open the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list. After…

X - The Steelers will reportedly make a final determination about Hines Ward's future with the team by March. I don't know why some consider this to be 'earlier than expected' being that March is the start of free agency and the time when the Steelers will be executing whatever strategy they've devised for this year's offseason moves in free agency and the draft. One thing's clear -- Ward knows he must take a pay-cut and restructure his contract in order for it to make sense for the Steelers to retain him for a 15th season. Ward said as much in his Tuesday afternoon interview with Tunch & Wolf.

XII - Ron Lippock, who runs the outstanding resource 'Pittsburgh Daily Sports Bulletin', recently interviewed Gabe Rivera, the former Steelers offensive lineman who was tragically injured during his rookie season in 1983. Good stuff as always from Ron and the PDSB.

Tom Brady threw for 363 yards and six touchdowns as the New England Patriots dismantled the Denver Broncos, 45-10, at Gillette Stadium last night in the divisional round of the playoffs, and it wasn't even that close. If it wasn't for an uncharacteristically bad interception by Brady in the first quarter, the Broncos may not have scored a single point.

As for Tim Tebow, he looked pretty much like he did most of the year, and like he did at the end of the regular season when the Broncos lost their last three games and backed into the playoffs with an 8-8 record. Tebow was 9/26 for 136 yards and no touchdowns (still trying to wrap my head around those 316 yards on ten completions).

Back to Brady. Other than the interception, he was a surgeon. This may have been aided by the fact that the Broncos played a zone defense against New England, which is like trying to put a fire out with gasoline. Didn't get that strategy at all.

But maybe that's because the Broncos were one of the worst teams to ever find their way into the postseason. At any rate, this sure makes the Steelers loss last week even harder to take.

I'm not saying Pittsburgh could have defeated the Patriots last night, but I doubt that they would have lost by five-touchdowns, even with a plethora of injuries. Oh well, they have no one to blame but themselves for bowing out in the Mile High City.

On to the rest of the playoffs. Maybe the Steelers just picked the wrong NFL postseason to be a wild card team. Last year, road teams won 6 of the 10 playoff games. So far this year, the visitors are 0 for 6. The home teams have averaged 35 points a game and have won by an average margin of nearly two touchdowns.

I enjoyed the heck out of the 49ers/Saints game last night, even if I was rooting for New Orleans to knock one of the Harbaughs out of the postseason. San Francisco jumped out to a 17-0 lead before the Saints crawled back into the game. The 49ers were ahead, 23-17, when the two teams combined to score four touchdowns over the final four minutes in one of the most exciting finishes to a playoff game in recent memory. On a play very reminiscent of Steve Young to T.O. in the 1998 wild card game against the Packers, San Francisco went ahead for good when Alex Smith connected with Vernon Davis for a 14 yard touchdown pass over the middle with nine seconds remaining. Davis even came to the sideline crying like Owens did back in '98. The 49ers won, 36-32, and advanced to the NFC Championship Game for the first time since 1997. The 49ers will either host the Giants at Candlestick Park next week or travel to Lambeau Field to take on the Packers for the right to go to the Super Bowl. As for the Saints, well, they just need to find a way to play all of their games at the Superdome where they are almost invincible. Unfortunately for New Orleans, they lost the tiebreaker to the 49ers and had to settle for the 3rd seed in the NFC.

I'm looking forward to another exciting day of playoff football. It will be interesting to see if the road teams can finally break the trend. Or maybe this is just "the Year of the Harbaugh."

Steelers Safety Ryan Clark, a man whom I do not know and therefore was unfortunately not able to slap this week.
I’m just going to repeat the headline.
The last time Pittsburgh Steelers Safety Ryan Clark played in Denver he lost his spleen, gallbladder and 30lbs. He could have lost his life. I swear I’m not making this up. Clark has sickle cell trait–which I also have–something that really doesn’t bother most people who don’t hurl themselves into other people at extremely high altitudes.
Now here’s the part where I become a big old girl.
All week I could not figure out why there was a discussion about whether or not Clark would play or not. Some things just don’t bear discussion. Given what happened last time he played in Denver it seemed obvious to me that he would not play. I realize players want to be tough, but I also realize there is a really thick bright red line between “tough” and “stupid” and the Steele...

The Pittsburgh Steelers play their last home game of the year tomorrow. It could also very well be the last home game at Heinz Field ever for Hines Ward. Ward has fallen to the bottom of the depth chart for the Steelers and with his salary over $ 4 million next season he could likely be playing his last game in a Steelers uniform.
Ward needs 9 catches to get to 1000 for his career. This being probably his last home game I hope the Steelers blow out the Rams and Ward gets thrown as many balls as possible. I do not want to see Hines in any uniform next year if he does not play for the Steelers. Without the catches that is a possibility. With the catches he will most likely retire a Steeler rather then being released.
Ward has been a Steeler through and through. He has been the best blocking wide receiver the game has ever seen. Ward also is almost to 1000 catches and has over 12,000 yards for a team that ran the ball his entire career. The Steelers were not known as a passing ...